Time for administration to awake from deep slumber, says Delhi HC

It is time for the administration to wake up from "deep slumber" and take appropriate steps to address the condition of city's coaching centres, the Delhi High Court has said, while granting interim bail till November 30 to four coowners of the basement of an Old Rajinder Nagar building that housed a coaching centre where three civil services aspirants drowned in July.

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Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma, in the order passed on September 13 on the bail applications of the accused, lamented the administration's "callous attitude", saying said such "incidents keep on happening" and innocent people lose their lives because of "mischievous people" who only want to earn money.

Children from across the country come to the Capital for their education and it is unfortunate that coaching centre owners have no care for such innocent lives, the judge said in the order released on the court's website.

Justice Sharma urged the Lieutenant Governor (L-G) to appoint a committee, preferably under a former judge of the high court, to inspect all coaching centres and give suggestions to ensure that they do not run in unsafe buildings or unsafe conditions.

The committee may include other responsible officers and vice-chairman of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) in order to explore the possibility of having such institutions in "one newly developed institutional area with all the modern amenities and civic facilities", added the court, as it sought a report from the proposed committee in three months.